Pop Culture: Bring big-screen numbers into the equation

In recent years, a glut of “popular economics” books has hit the shelves.

Dennis Volkert

In recent years, a glut of “popular economics” books has hit the shelves.

Authors of the popular econ books use economic principles to examine everyday life.

Titles in this genre include “Freakonomics,”?“The Tipping?Point,”?“Blink.” “Outliers”?and, my favorite, “Chicken Soup for the Economic Soul For Dummies.”

A parallel book trend is known as “popular math.”

Popular math??Yes, you read that correctly. To help understand the concept, suppose an oxymoron is on a train traveling west at 40 mph ...

Titles in the pop-math field include “Negative Math: How Mathematical Rules Can Be Positively Bent”; “Nonplussed! Mathematical Proof of Implausible Ideas”; and, “Numbers to the Letter:?How Subtracting a Few Words Can Add Up to Shorter Book Titles.”

The value of pop math is similar to pop econ:?using academics, academics can help non-academics think about things they’ve thought about but never gave a second thought about.

That’s easy to understand, but it doesn’t go far enough. A movie would work even better.

Think about it. Novels are a common source for screenplays, but when it comes to non-fiction, we typically get documentaries.

That’s missing half the pie chart.

“Freakonomics” could be made into a comedy. And who wouldn’t go to see “Nonplussed” if it became an action thriller?

And don’t forget chemistry and physics. How about a horror flick based on the periodic table of elements?

Stephen Hawking’s “A Brief History of Time”?already got the documentary treatment, but it could find new life as a chick flick.

From there, filmmakers could make the next logical step: textbooks. Imagine the anticipation for movies like “See Figure 1”?or “Study Questions for Unit 5.”

Eventually, we would reach the pinnacle: a 21-part movie series based on the 1988 World Book encyclopedia. (It could easily stretch to 22, but the Research?Guide and Index can be featured as an “extra” on DVD).

What is the box-office potential of all this??There’s no way to tell. You know what would help??If we had books about popular economics and popular math.

But they don’t make movies like that anymore.

Dennis Volkert is features editor at the Sturgis Journal. Contact him at volkert@sturgisjournal.com